Tuesday Night Sweatfest

Started yesterday on the heavy bag again, tightening up techniques. Its nice to be alone with a bag & some time, it really allows you to feel out different versions of what you're trying to achieve. New York E helped me out, pointing out that I'm moving in directly into what could be an oncoming punch & working with me on moving the other way.

Level 1 I paired with Spike, who has those former boxer straight punches that will knock you on your ass. I was just holding the focus mitts for him & thinking how I would never, never want to be hit that hard in the head in real life. Stick & move!! We also worked side hammerfists & front kicks. My hammerfists have not recovered their strength yet from having to change my form to blocking my face with my free hand instead of blocking nothing, but they're getting stronger. Bagwork is helping. Ended the class with bear hug from behind. Thank god Spike was wearing a cup, I really got to smack him.

Level 3 was the Gorgeous Bastard's class, & I paired with Teensy LL, always a goal for me because she's smart & quite good at this stuff. This class was freaking fun! We did 2 & 3 point defenses against round kick to the head. No way will I ever do a 2 point block in real life, it'll crack my little arm right in half, and then I'll have to wear a hook, which will make it hard to give myself a pedicure. 3 point is good, though, and actually fun for some reason. Then we sparred a bit, then sparred against multiple attackers. GB is always talking about how sparring can be unrealistic (as opposed to actual fighting) because it turns into a game of cat and mouse. I agree, the supremely useful thing about sparring, for me, it that is teaches you to take hard hits & keep fighting, because the things I think I'd do in a fight are too dangerous to do in sparring. So he had us do an exercise where we protect a friend. So, let's say Miss K of the Fabulous Hair is my friend & she doesn't know how to fight. We're just hanging out & Teensy LL comes along & remembers how much she hates Miss K of FH. Teensy LL attacks her! My job is to recognize the attack & block it, continuing to fight TLL as she both fights me & continues to try to get past me to MK of FH, who squeals & runs if TLL gets near her. Hell, no TLL does not get near her, because I'm on the job, though let's face it, I do get punched in the head a lot.

So, as GB later explains, we replace our game of cat and mouse with a realistic objective & therefore forget about sparring & just fight. It was so much FUN. Then we had to do straight up sparring, but we had our gear bags strapped to us while we went at it, to add another level of difficulty & distraction. Annoying, but effective!